This invention relates to an oil separator for an air conditioner, more particularly to an oil separator for an air conditioner which separates lubricating oil from refrigerant vapor of the refrigerant to transfer the oil stored in the lower part.
A conventional oil separator is shown in FIG. 9. Refrigerant having a misty oil and a superheated vapor flows into a body 101 through the upper part of the body 101 of an oil separator 100. The refrigerant is spread in a loop above a first buffer plate 110 which is mounted in the body 101. The refrigerant passes through wool shaped stainless steel filaments 120 mounted below the first buffer plate 110. The misty oil is congealed into droplets.
The refrigerant having droplets of oil and a superheated vapor passes through a mesh net 140 which is mounted at a lower part of the filaments 120 by a fixing ring 130, whereafter a suspension waste is collected at the net 140. Subsequently, the refrigerant passes through a second buffer plate 150 mounted below the ring 130, and the passed refrigerant is moved in a circular motion because a plurality of guiding holes 151 of the second buffer plate 150 are formed by a burring process and oriented in a circular direction. At this time, since the overheated vapor separated from the refrigerant has less centrifugal force due to relative lighter weight, the vapor flows directly into an outlet pipe 160. Since the droplets of oil have larger centrifugal force due to their relative heavy weight, the oil is spread outwardly to be contained at the inside wall of the body 101. The typical arrangement of that apparatus is described in Japanese Utility Model Publication No. 1992-7499 and No. 1992-7500, respectively.
In those structures, after passing through the second separating plate 150, the refrigerant is swirled by the centrifugal force. Due to the centrifugal force, the oil DO contained in the lower part of the body 101 is also swirled whereby vapor is dissolved in the vibrating oil. Unavoidably, the oil having vapor flows out through the pipe 170. Therefore, it has a problem in that the operation efficiency of the air conditioner is decreased due to a loss of refrigerant vapor. Further, it has another problem in that the outlet pipe for vapor is vibrated by the swirling refrigerant.